RealD shares slump as Samsung exits 3D TV deal

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

(Reuters) - RealD Inc’s shares fell as much as 14 percent in extended trade after the licensor of 3D technologies said Samsung Electronics pulled out of an agreement to make television panels featuring the company’s technology.

Samsung’s new management was not pursuing the agreement, announced in May this year, as the global economic climate dragged down consumer demand, RealD said.

The announcement comes after Samsung, Sony Corp, and Panasonic Corp said two months ago that they intended to standardize their 3D TVs around active shutter glasses in conjunction with RealD’s privately-owned rival XPAND.

RealD uses a different passive 3D display technology.

While the license agreement with Samsung remains in effect, RealD said it is pursuing other partners for its 3D display technology.

TV manufacturers including industry leader Samsung have been struggling with weak demand and oversupply.

Earlier Wednesday, Sony warned of a fourth straight year of losses, with its television unit set to lose $2.2 billion.

RealD, which also licenses its technology to movie exhibitors, posted a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations on license revenue driven by successful Hollywood 3D movie releases like Transformers, Harry Potter and Lion King 3D.

Second-quarter net income was $18.9 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $5.1 million, or 12 cents a share, a year ago.

Net license revenue, which accounts for 59 percent of total revenue, more than doubled in the second quarter. International markets contributed to 56 percent of license revenue from 52 percent last year on strong growth in China and Russia.

RealD’s growth comes after a dismal summer when its shares took a hit on investor fears that 3D versions of such movies as Kung Fu Panda 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides were attracting a smaller share of overall viewers, compared with past blockbusters like Avatar.

The company continues to expect screen installations to rise by 35-40 percent for fiscal 2012. As of September 23, it said the number of RealD-enabled screens worldwide doubled to 18,700 from a year ago.

Revenue for the company -- which also competes with Imax Corp, Dolby Laboratories Inc and privately owned Masterimage 3D -- rose 35 percent to $88 million.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 22 cents a share on revenue of $94.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the Los Angeles-based company, which have lost over half their value so far this year, were trading at $9.50 after the bell. They closed at $11.26 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.